The liberation of the concentration campsAn exhibition of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation

On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps in April 2010 the foundation has designed an exhibition, which shows the history of the camp liberation. It consists of 30 posters.

The exhibition has been collected for the following reasons:

The conditions, under which the camps were achieved and liberated little by little, are nearly unknown.

The disorganisation step by step of the structures of the headquarters of the Reich and the SS caused different decisions of the National Socialists in authority, the leadership of the camp and its inferiors. That resulted in newly-made crimes or in contrast in disobedience. There were the fear to have to obey on the one hand and the impossibility to take the orders on the other hand.

The role played by the international camp commission as resistive underground movement was different in every camp in the last days before the liberation.

The tragedies in the concentration camps have characterised the liberation, which did not stopped and which arrived too late for many prisoners.

At that time the everlasting flood of photos of cadavers or pictures of the so-called “Sterbeheime” (“dying institution”) widespread without any historical analysis have characterised and confused the situation and incidents in the global consciousness.

It is remembered less, that is known about the survivors, who returned to a war-torn society.

The exhibition in 30 posters

The exhibition starts with three posters, which commemorate the reality in the concentration camp and the dimension of the genocide. The fourth poster shows the doom of the Third Reich.

A short chronological report about the first liberation in the East and West in the year 1944 (5, 6) and an abstract of the situation inside the camps during the movement of the Allies (7, 8, 9) follow. In this context the role of the International Commission is discussed and the conditions under which the authorities advanced the prisoners evacuation, by foot or other means, are reproduced. Besides, the different intentions concerning the evacuation and the circumstances, under which they took place, are shown.

Poster number 18 shows the “Sterbeheime” (“dying institution”) (established at different places in 1944 and 1945), whereof Bergen-Belsen is the most important one. The posters 19, 20 and 21 are dedicated to the tragedies of the death marches. The following posters (22 to 28) describe what the Allies discovered, when they arrived, and the circumstances, under which some liberations took place.

Finally the posters 29 and 30 invite the observer to think about the difficulties of returning for the prisoners and their confrontation with a foreign world, which they had never imagined.

The 30 posters are kept in cylindrical boxes and include a positioner to pop up and arrange them. There is no wall fastening needed.

The exhibition can be hired (15€ a week), under the condition that there is an insurance that covers the risk of potential damage, that the exhibition is available to the desired date and that the transportation costs are taken by the borrower.

The exhibition can be send to your desired place or fetched at the foundations place.